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Adam was basking in the warm sun of a waning summer. The Great Ice had begun its retreat some years past, and summers were beginning to be really enjoyable. This particularly had been a very good summer: the hunting was good, the campaigns to the North had been successful, and Adam was basking in his own congratulations in addition to the rays of the sun. Adam was approaching his 50th winter, but he was still strong, still alert, and still very much The Man for this scrawny bunch of opportunistic hunter-gatherers.

Adam, was not, of course, the First Man. He was, however, the first man to make anything of himself, the first man to unify the Tribes, or at least a lot of them, and he was, as we shall see, the first man who laid down the law about wearing clothes.

So, Adam was just lying in the sun, happily musing on the food stores tucked away for the winter, and how he had gotten to this point in his life. His youngest daughter, Beth, was out in the field, tossing rocks at nothing in particular. Eve was beside him, napping quietly. Part of Adam's thoughts drifted to how beautiful she still was. While there may have been times that he would have liked to bash the old gal's head in, this certainly wasn't one of those times. No, Adam was at peace, talking with God.

Talking with God? Well, hell, yes. I don't necessarily mean that God was paying any attention, I don't even insist that there is such a thing as a God, and I don't mean that Adam was hearing voices in his head, either. I just mean the dude was talking with God, or at least he thought he was. Personally, I think he was talking to himself, but Adam wouldn't have shared that opinion.

Anyway, Adam now was congratulating himself on all the splendid political moves he had made, killing that one, and making friends with the other one, and setting these two on each other's throats, and he was telling God all about it. This was long before all that humility crap came into fashion, so people would tell God how bitchin' they were. Apparently God doesn't mind, or didn't then, or maybe there is no God. Adam certainly wouldn't have had thoughts like that, though.

So while Adam was pumping himself up to the Big Guy, he was also thinking about some alliances that weren't quite as hunky-dory as he would have liked them to be. There was the Big Fish Clan just over the mountain, and while there was little doubt that Adam's people and all the Confederated Tribes could whip the Fish Folk in a hard afternoon, battles can go bad in a minute, and even a crafty old fart like Adam could find himself hurt. Or dead. As sure as Adam was that God would have an incredible position waiting for him in the Great Beyond, there was the nagging fact that Old Thunder Voice had let Adam down now and then, and, truth be told, they'd never really had anything but a one sided conversation.

Such thoughts were disquieting to Adam. It is not good to have bad thoughts about God, especially when the Dude can hear what you are thinking before you even think it. Thinking that God might give power over to the Fish Folk might be seen as treason, Adam thought. He wrinkled his brow and concentrated furiously on non-traitorous thoughts.

Still, the Fish Folk were a problem. The old bastard that ruled them was a few years older than Adam, but as healthy as a Saber Toothed Tiger, and just about as trustworthy. About the only thing that Adam admired about FishMaster was that the old geezer could still dunk his dicky three times a day, and even when Adam snuck off to visit his younger wives, he still seldom could go more than once.

Adam chuckled about old FishMaster, and then his eyes froze on Beth, still playing in the field. Beth was young, true, but she was starting to form, and it looked like that form was going to take after Eve. In her younger days, Eve could just sashay down the path and penises would snap to attention as she passed. Sexy broad, thought Adam, and it looked like Beth was going to be the same.

Which made a marriage with FishMaster just what the Doctor ordered.

Adam liked the idea. Adam liked it a lot. This could absolutely take care of an extremely nagging political problem. Old FishMaster had given Eve the Look more than once, and it was only good sense and fear of war that had kept Adam from bashing his ugly head in. But if FishMaster got his juices up over Eve, he'd certainly go nuts over Beth! Adam could see fifteen years of peace in the bag.

But just then he noticed Balzar's son standing not twenty feet from Beth. A somewhat stupid lout, even by the standards prevalent then, he was staring fixedly at Beth's lovely butt, grinning like a loon and stroking himself!

Criminey! The stupid fool surely wasn't dumb enough to make a move on Adam's property, was he? Heck, he'd find himself on the business end of Adam's axe if he did! But... FishMaster wouldn't want spoiled goods. If one of these bastards hauls Beth off for a tumble in the bush, everything could be ruined. Ruined!

Adam jumped up, disturbing Eve and almost falling down again in his haste to get erect. "Beth!", he called, "Beth!". He wasn't sure just what he was going to do, but then a chill wind, a harbinger of the winter to come, swept over his naked back. Adam suddenly had the Idea. He looked at his daughter and visualized her as she looked in Winter, securely bundled in skins, her sexuality protected from young men as much as her skin was protected from cold. Adam called to her again. "Beth! Come over here and put some clothes on!"

The child ran to him and looked up at her father. "Why, Father? The sun is still warm. It is not winter yet."

Eve looked into her mate's eyes and saw the lie forming even before Adam spoke. She said nothing then, and said nothing later when Adam covered himself with skins and went to tell the same lie to the priests. Eve kept her silence for her own reasons, and never confronted Adam with her knowledge, not even while they snuggled under skins far in the back of the cave and wild winter storms raged outside.

The child tugged at her father's hand. "Why, Father?".

Adam tore his guilty eyes from Eve and looked down at her. "God has spoken to me, Beth. We must wear clothes always from this time on."